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Teri Kanefield Profile picture
Teri Kanefield
@Teri_Kanefield
Former appellate defender. UC Berkeley Law graduate. Book prizes include the Jane Addams Book Award.
474 subscribers
Apr 29 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Everyone will have a different opinion of the strength of the Manhattan criminal case against Trump.

I am offering no opinions on the strength or who will prevail.

I am saying that people are working too hard to explain the case and figure out the legal theory.

1/ The prosecution has everyone confused because they are framing the case as "election fraud" and "election interference" so everyone is trying to connect the crimes we know about to "election fraud."

2/
terikanefield.com/wheres-the-bee…
Mar 11 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Finished. (Whew)

As promised, all about Legal pundits and the Outrage Industry, with a few cherished conspiracy theories carefully debunked.

Click here to start:

For years, I was perplexed by what I saw on Twitter. . .

1/ terikanefield.com/can-democracy-…
Image It seemed to me that the dynamics of social media were making people more authoritarian.

Then I started reading experts in political communication and it all started making sense.


2/ terikanefield.com/can-democracy-…
Image
Mar 9 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
Whew! I finished.



Everything I promised: How to listen (or not listen) to legal pundits.

It's also about what is dangerous about the entire industry of punditry, speculation, and cable talk shows.

1/terikanefield.com/invented-narra…
For years I was perplexed by what I was seeing on left-leaning Twitter, political blogs, and partisan reporting.

I had the feeling that, in its way, what I was seeing was comparable to Fox: Lots of bad information and even unhinged conspiracy theories.
2terikanefield.com/invented-narra…
Mar 2 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
If Trump can win with everything we know about him, what make people think a finding of guilt would change that?

It makes no sense.
Also what if the jury acquits? It can happen.

I do recall the same people thought impeachment and indictment would cause Trump to crumble. Another contradiction: when people demanded indictments RIGHT NOW (in 2021 and early 2022) the reason was, "Everyone knows he's guilty! Look at all the evidence!"

We saw the J6 committee findings.

Trump isn't saying "I didn't do it." He's saying, "I had the right to do it."

2
Feb 29 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The news takes 2 minutes to convey.

"Here is what the court did." That is news.

Listening to people speculate about why the court did it and what it means is not news.

It is entertainment.

But it is a special kind of entertainment.

1/ . . . because it is designed to keep people hooked. People need to stay glued to the screen for hour after hour.

But to hook people, you need to scare them. The Facebook whistleblower testified that content that produces strong emotions like anger gets more engagement.

2/
Feb 29 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
If I write another blog post addressing the outrage cycle here on Twitter and in the MSNBC ecosystem, it will be to explore why so many people who believe they are liberal or progressive actually want a police state.

1/ Today alone, a handful of people who consider themselves liberal or progressive told me that the "traitors need to be arrested and prosecuted."

In 2019, back when I wore myself out tamping down misinformation, I explained the legal meaning of treason.

2/
Feb 29 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
I spent 5 years writing FAQ pages and "talking people off the ledge" each time there was a collective meltdown.

I stopped doing that because it is never-ending.

I keep saying the same things over and over.

1/ In 2021, when people were demanding indictments, I said, "Indictments are the start of a long harrowing process."

I explained that trials are harrowing.

Judges make bad decisions.

Juries don't always get it right. A person can be guilty but be acquitted.

2/
Feb 21 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Notice also that this person wants "faith."

I have always found this weird.

First: Democracy and rule of law are not a "religion." We don't have "faith" that it will work.

We have confidence that rule of law and democracy are better than the alternatives.

1/ Image Second, people in this particular echo chamber are encouraged to dislike democracy for the same reason other echo chambers dislike it: It is too slow. It is too frustrating. It is too annoying.

Yes, democracy and rule of law are slow-moving and imperfect

2.
Feb 11 • 23 tweets • 5 min read
I saw this before I hit mute LOL.

Trump announced his presidency on Nov. 15.
Jack Smith was appointed three days later because when Trump announced his candidacy, it created a conflict of interest.

The pace of the investigation did not change after Garland was appointed.

1/ A conspiracy theory is when a person is confronted with something he or she doesn't understand, and looks for a way to assign blame.

What might be called the MSNBC-left-leaning social media ecosystem has become a hot bed of misinformation and conspiracy theories.

2/
Jan 27 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
In this week's blog post, I plan to demonstrate that any democratic government—by its very nature and under its own terms—will have a dangerous anti-democratic opposition.

The opposition can be blunted, and with constant work. . .



1/terikanefield.com/the-anti-democ… can be prevented from weakening or toppling democratic institutions, but anti-democratic opposition can never be eliminated because

(1) too many people have what political psychologists call an anti-democratic personality and because. . .



2/terikanefield.com/the-anti-democ…
Jan 22 • 16 tweets • 4 min read
If he is following the rule of law, why would he have to justify it?

Here is what you do.

Find the brief Garland filed, read the law he cited, google the law, and read about it.

At one point I did that.

People came to me with that question, and I did the research.

1/ I'll go ahead and tell you, but you will listen to the rest of this lecture 😂

Garland was following the Westfall Act until he had permission from a court to deviate from precedent.

Now the lecture . . .

2/
Jan 13 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Fact: The United States has been a backsliding democracy.

Fact: We are in an information disruption.

Because democracy requires facts and an educated population, the question is whether enough people will develop the media literacy needed quickly enough.

1/ The invention of the printing press created the same havoc as the Internet: Suddenly people were bombarded with information in quantities they were not accustomed to, and they didn't know how to evaluate written sources.

That's when blood libel took off.

2/
Nov 5, 2023 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
If you missed it, I have some light reading for your Sunday 🤓

After I finished this short series of blog posts, I realized the title is "The Misinformation-Outrage Cycle."

The series starts here:

It's generally a good idea . . .

1/terikanefield.com/can-democracy-… . . . to follow the advice given to Alice and the White Rabbit in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but if you must read out of order, here are the links:

Part 2: “Creating the Conditions for Mainstream Conspiracy Theories."


2/ terikanefield.com/conspiracytheo…
Image
Oct 28, 2023 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
I have a new blog post ready:


We all know that the current proliferation of misinformation is endangering democracy.

I plan to show that democracy-endangering conspiracy theories have also taken root among MSNBC/CNN/ and left-leaning social media. . .
1/terikanefield.com/can-democracy-… At the end, I will answer the question: How can we solve the problem?

If you've been a regular reader, you will find some of the ideas in this introduction familiar, but to create a coherent piece, I need to begin at the beginning.



2/terikanefield.com/can-democracy-…
Sep 27, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
If you missed it yesterday, to answer the questions I've been getting about Trump, his Truth Social attacks, and gag orders, I wrote this blog post:

Trump, Gag Orders, and the First Amendment

It seems some people visualize something like this. . .


1/terikanefield.com/trump-gag-orde… . . . "issue a gag order or lock him up (and take his phone) and shut him up already."

I come to conclusions about what Judge Chutkan can (or should) do to avoid being overturned on appeal.

The problem: None of this will accomplish what people think it will accomplish.

2/
Sep 19, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Here is a possibility (I learned from smart people on other platforms):

Lots of used moved their primary social media homes elsewhere, but keep their Twitter accounts. This is costing Musk gazillions in server fees. So . . .

1/ . . . he needs to shed millions of these users who are driving up his infrastructure fees. Charging a fee lets him hide his failure.

Between that, and bringing in the revenue it can help stem the bleeding in revenue.

2/
Aug 2, 2023 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
When you turn on the TV and see a bunch of people talking, that isn't news.

News = facts.

You are being entertained not educated.

We are currently experiencing a disinformation disruption.

People are bombarded with opinions and speculation and sensational headlines.

1/ My opinion is that the biggest threat to democracy right now is how people get their information.

And that people don't see the difference between speculation, opinions, and facts.

In a click-driven media environment, facts get lost.

Provably false statements get repeated.

2/
Jul 22, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Confirmation is a powerful drug. If you spent two years insisting

🔹Garland is a wimp and will never indict Trump
🔹Garland, therefore, needs to be fired,

what do you do when the Garland DOJ indicts?

Admit you were wrong?
Or find a way to say you were right all along? You come up with a new theory, which ignores the fact that Garland appointed Smith when Trump announced his candidacy (because, rules)

You make up a new narrative: Smith got things rolling!
(in fact, the pace didn't change)

Garland should have done it sooner!
Jul 22, 2023 • 17 tweets • 4 min read
He is wrong. In this instance, he is talking off the top of his head. He didn't look closely.

Why do people follow me just to argue with me?

Read what I wrote and use your own brains.

You all have your own brains, right?

Democracy requires an electorate that can THINK.

1/ Fox viewers believe whatever they are told when they turn on their televisions. Don't be like that.

Holder offered an opinion. He offered no facts to back up what he said.

I offer facts. Lots of them.

Try this. It will not hurt you. Read this page:

2/terikanefield.com/all-new-doj-in…
Jul 12, 2023 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
Yes. Yes. Sort of.

In the next tweet, I will attach screenshots from the Meta company explaining the plan . . .

1/ Activity Pub is the protocol that Mastodon uses (and word press can use) and soon Tumblr (and others).

Notice 'new types of connections that are simply not possible on most social apps today.'

2/
Jul 7, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Well, a foothold with disaffected Twitter users.

Bluesky, like Post and a few others, tried to replace Twitter by siphoning off Twitter users.

I don't think you can achieve scale or network effect by siphoning users from one site to another.

The way to achieve scale. . . or the network effect Twitter achieved is either organically, as Twitter did it, which is slow growth, or by doing with Threads did: Tapping into a base of billions of users and making it super easy (download an app and press a few buttons).

Think of it. Billions.